Mark Pett

authorstrator

Look Ma! No Words!

I imagine novelists the world wide have anxiety dreams in which their books come out and they forgot to include the words. Well, friends, in a mere 12 days, my new book THE BOY AND THE AIRPLANE arrives on bookshelves both actual and virtual, and here’s the hitch: it has ZERO words in it! (pause for ooohs and aaahs)

Now, granted, I have allowed myself the use of pictures, which, it turns out, is sufficient to tell a story. In fact, I think it’s a really wonderful story. I rather hope you’ll agree.

I didn’t set out to write a wordless book. I have nothing against words, per se. It just kind of happened.

Perhaps I might back up.

Some years ago, I wrote and drew a daily syndicated comic strip called LUCKY COW. One thing you’ll notice about comic strips is that they often become what we in the biz call “talking head” strips. That is, due to the shrinking size of comic strips in newspapers and time pressures on cartoonists, a strip becomes little more than two heads talking to each other — no backgrounds, just heads. It’s not a given, of course, that this happens to a comic strip, but it tends to happen — even to the best of them.

In the midst of this phenomenon, a friend of mine named Mark Tatulli launched his new comic strip LIO, a wonderfully dark wordless comic strip about a boy of the same name. After reading his strip for the first time, I asked Mark how he possibly thought he could write a wordless comic strip every single day. He replied that it was easier than I might think. He then challenged me to write an entire week of comic strips without words. “It will change the way you write,” he said.

So I tried it. And lo, he was correct! Anything resembling a “talking head” strip, of course, went into the garbage can. Instead of telling the jokes, I had to show them. I became much more reliant on backgrounds, objects, actions, and expressions.

After I’d completed my Tatulli Challenge, I began every week writing my comic strips wordless. First, I told the joke with pictures. Then, I added words as needed. Indeed, it changed the way I wrote!

Fast forward to my earliest drafts of THE BOY AND THE AIRPLANE. As I had done with my comic strips so often, I began by telling the story simply with pictures. Once I had done that, I began adding words. In the case of THE BOY AND THE AIRPLANE, I found that the words only distracted from the story. In the end, I found it needed none!

One of the “risks” of writing a wordless book is that it can lend the story to wildly different interpretations. In early reviews, I have already encountered readers who interpreted the actions in ways I had never considered. Some might find this frustrating, but one thing you quickly learn as an author is that, once your story is out in the world, it is no longer yours.

On the upside, I expect being wordless will make translating THE BOY AND THE AIRPLANE into foreign languages much easier. LE GARCON ET L’AVION. There. I just translated the book into French.

23 Comments

Gary Walton
March 22, 2013

Since our family had Mark and his family over for a picnic, and had the rare privilege of seeing some of the first drafts of The Boy and the Airplane, were absolutely delighted by it, and even got to critique it and make some suggestions, we are eager to get our hands on the finished work!

Mark was a classmate in High School. He blew our art teacher (and me, who can barely add, but can draw) away with his ability to be a wonderfully talented and witty artist as well as be brilliant in Math. I was in awe of him then, as I am now. I can’t wait to get a copy to read to my children! Way to go Mark! The book looks beautiful…Words can’t describe it.

Looks like a great book! I love the concept of going wordless~ truly the epitome of the “show, don’t tell” rule. Kind of like a novelist trying to write a dramatic scene between two people simply by describing the actions–dirty looks, broken dishes, slammed doors, a remote control war, etc. This post makes me wish I could draw

Thanks for your ‘kids’ cartoon workshop in Salt Lake City yesterday. I participated in the middle third or so and got a great deal out of it. You are very effective – with kinds and adults.

I’m interested in utilizing cartoons and caricatures of the 100 or more Congressmen politicians who are largely responsible for the dysfunction of Congress. This is related to Project 535 and my CALLing You efforts to help mobilize citizens to get involved. – http://www.2andrade.org

I have a boy who is 9. He read the book of yours and started to cry…the boy and the airplane… my son finds it very depressing and sad.
… I dont know why…but he keeps crying.
I personally liked your illustration and the story lead me to think…
My boy is still so sad… what should I say to him…
I just hug him tight.

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